BANGALORE: Death of governance - that sums up the state of affairs in the Karnataka government. The primary allegiance of MLAs and ministers is to themselves, then to their leader and party. People, did anybody say? How naive can one be? Within weeks of holding a global investors' meet where his job was to convince potential investors of the government's stability to approve the projects they signed on, the industries minister resigns just to pressure the BJP high command to change the chief minister.

But then, Karnataka hasn't had a full cabinet of 34 ministers (the sanctioned strength) either under B S Yeddyurappa or D V Sadananda Gowda. Gowda is saddled with 21 portfolios which he promised he'll offload after Aashada month ends in mid-July. With Friday's wave of resignations, he is faced with 10 more portfolios.

When Gowda took over the reins in August 2011, the assumption was he would bring in some order in the administration. But he has been functioning as leader of a vertically divided cabinet with ministers owing allegiance either to Yeddyurappa or to him. The cabinet lacks cohesion. The book release by Gowda on Thursday to mark completion of BJP's four years of governance is a striking example: only Gowda's supporters attended the event, and the Yeddyurappa camp was busy plotting his ouster.

The handling of important issues such as appointment of Lokayukta or handling of the drought has been lackadaisical. When the CM was in a position to appoint the Lokayukta, he dilly-dallied; with the issue pending before the Supreme Court, the government has happily put off a decision.

The deficit rainfall has raised alarms of the drought becoming severe. Unlike 2011 when only north Karnataka was affected, this year the southern parts are also facing deficit rainfall.

JD(S) floor leader in the legislative council, M C Nanaiah, said: "The paralysis of BJP governance didn't start after Gowda took over. Its genesis is from Yeddyurappa's tenure, who projected himself as the unassailable leader of one community, took decisions which none could question and gave a free hand to his ministers to become corrupt. His priority was only on managing numbers to continue in the post.''

Yeddyurappa created a coterie of his ministers - Basavaraj Bommai, M P Renukacharya, Umesh Katti, Murugesh R Nirani, Shobha Karandlaje and V Somanna. In charge of key portfolios during the former CM's time, they were mainly preoccupied warding off the threat from former minister G Janardhana Reddy, who wanted to dislodge Yeddyurappa.

The sum result, according to Nanaiah, was that the Yeddyurappa government, from 2008 onwards, indulged in massive debt raising which rose from Rs 67,000 crore to Rs 94,000 crore by the time he stepped down. "He dragged Karnataka into a debt trap with the borrowings being 25% of the state's GDP,'' he added.

While Yeddyurappa and Gowda are driven by the lure to regain or hang on to the CM's gaddi and, hence, haven't focused on providing good governance, the BJP high command cannot escape from sharing blame for the mess that is Karnataka.The leadership has suffered from a paralysis of decision-making. It has failed to crack the whip on Yeddyurappa as he has orchestrated daily dissidence against the current dispensation. At the same time, it has not backed Gowda to the hilt to give him the confidence to take tough measures.

BANGALORE: A day after BJP central leaders decided not to replace chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda till the presidential election is over, 10 ministers loyal to former CM BS Yeddyurappa resigned on Friday demanding an immediate change of guard in the state.

Within no time, party leaders in Delhi directed the CM not to accept the resignations.

TOI in its June 26 edition had reported that ministers loyal to BSY would resign if the BJP leaders didn't replace Gowda.

After threats on four occasions to resign if Gowda wasn't replaced, the dissident camp gave a handwritten three-line statement (demanding the CM to convene a legislature party meeting) to Gowda at Anugraha, his official residence. They were in such a hurry to be done with it that the eight ministers waiting in Cauvery, official residence of Shettar, which adjoins Anugraha, didn't even give Gowda time to freshen up after returning from Kodagu district. Sending back their official cars, the ministers used private vehicles to reach the CM's residence.

"Though 10 of us have resigned, the CM didn't get the resignations of Shobha and Naik as they were not present. Soon they will meet him and give him the copies. We couldn't tolerate the humiliation anymore as we have been urging the CM to convene legislature party meeting. There is no question of taking back the resignation," dissident leaders Udasi and Bommai said. They hoped they'd get some relief from BJP leaders and maintained it was not blackmail.

The rebel ministers and some legislators met at Shettar's residence on Friday morning and decided to resign. They later met BSY, who has been sulking after being forced to quit last year in the wake of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining indicting him and asked by the party to come clean in the corruption cases. Their decision was endorsed by him. By 3pm, they came back to Shettar's residence and waited for over three hours for Gowda to return.

Dharmendra Pradhan, party in-charge of Karnataka affairs, said in Delhi that there was no question of replacing Gowda as he was "doing a good job". Pradhan was scheduled to be in bangalore on Friday to elicit opinion from legislators on change in guard. As Gowda and state BJP president K S Eshwarappa were not officially informed by Pradhan about his arrival, both along with their loyal ministers exerted pressure on the party leadership and stalled his arrival. They had planned to lead a delegation to Delhi amid speculation of leadership change, but were asked by the leaders to cancel their proposed visit to the capital.

The rebels' move comes a day after the BJP leadership sought to buy more time to resolve the Karnataka crisis. Some ministers loyal to the CM had threatened to resign if Gowda was replaced.